On the first day we were greeted by thunderstorms and rain so decided to camp low to be less exposed to weather and to stay on dry ground. The next morning woke up at 3am to a perfect clear morning. Strapped on the skis and skins and started from about 6500'. The firm snow on the south side route allowed us to skin just couple hunderd feet short of the false summit. Made a quick trip to the summit and enjoyed the views and sun for a long time as the wind was much less compared to false summit. We decided to ski down the SW chutes instead of the south side. From the top of the chute could not see the bottom, must be steep... Indeed the chute was around 40 degrees consistent all the way to the end of it. The snow was soft enough providing an excellent ski descent, looking back up was very impressive. The constant rock fall from the nearby ridges reminded us that we had to get out of there. The traverse back to our camp site involved some tree skiing and carrying skis over several ridges under a very hot sun, worth the ski.

Mazama Glacier (August 3, 2003)

Group of eight Chemeketans headed to Sunrise camp through the green Bird Creek meadows. We shared the entire camp with only another team of two people, a rare thing on Adams. The summit day was overcast but the strong west wind was blocked by the mountain. The glacier consists of two moderate snow ramps. We stayed close to the crumbly ridge dividing Mazama glacier from the Klickitat ice fall to avoid the crevasses on the first ramp. The snow was hard but not icy on the first ramp. There is rock fall hazard along this way. The ramp levels of and leads to the second steeper ramp which was hard ice and required a straight up climb rather than zigzagging until we intersected the south slog at Pikers Peak. The rest of the way is snow free all pumice. The cloudy and windy skies still allowed for good views of Rainier. We came down the South side with as much glissading as possible.

South Side (August 25, 2002)

Was quite dissapointed when our group decided to camp at Crescent glacier after only two hours of hike. Afternoon thunderstorms rolled in and it was quite a show. Next day was clear and perfect for the summit attempt. Long slog to Pikers Peak, it is kind of depressing to see the summit still far away at that point. Glissading down earned me the name of "Flying Turk" as I was airborne on some of the icy sections.

Traversed to high camp from cold springs. (Road to cold springs camp is closed about 1/4 mile from camp due to downed tree across the road). Crevasses are starting to open up on this route. Stayed to the left and had no problems. Crystal clear day and could see to Baker in the north and the Sisters in the South.

This was a relatively easy climb done in one day. Four of us left at 7:30am, and returned just by dark at 7pm. The summit was cold and windy, and clouds had moved in by afternoon (I was last to leave at 4pm).

Glissading was great! "Subway Tunnels" were already cut, and all one had to do was "transfer" over to the other subway tubes to continue the trip down:)

Crampons and ice axe needed, but the glaciers weren't in as good condition as they could have been...

Great climb and a challenge route finding since the route markers were under 2 feet of snow. We kept having rocks roll down the mountain toward us. Most of them would veer away from us but one or two kept coming straight and we had to scurry out of the way. Some of them picked up enough snow that they were 2 or 3 feet in diameter.

My first "alpine" summit - a fantastic trip with my dearly beloved Rebecca Rice and a great friend Jim Macsurak. Quite the trip for a bunch of flatlanders from Delafield, Wisconsin (ALT 912!) I saw my buddy make it with little or no training and tremendous fortitude - Jim Macsurak has the heart of a lion.

The trip I will always remember - the accomplishment I waited years to complete - just the same, the beginning of the most facinating sport I have ever

It being so late in the season, I expected to be wading through scree the whole way but was pleasantly suprised at the route conditions. The trail to lunch counter was dry and solid with snow above the Crescent Glacier. A tiny bit of scree slogging to get to the Lunch Counter and then snow again almost the whole way to Pikers. The final 300 feet to Pikers peak was an agonizing scree slog, but that was the worst of it. From Pikers to the summit was dry but the trail was tolerable.

Went car to car with some newbies in about 13.5 hours. The route was in much better condition than I had anticipated. But, it's 1,000 times better to go earlier in the season.

Little over five hours from parking lot to summit. Beautiful weather with great visibility. Only a couple other climbers on top. Thought there would be more people on a holiday weekend. Have to come back in the spring with skis when there is more snow.

Climbed the Headwall variation of the Mazama Glacier with Martin on the 17th. Due to some computer problems and an overbooked schedule I'm just getting the pictures, so I figured I'd go ahead and post the report.

As Martin said our original plan was to climb The Castle, but it was completely melted out. Settling on the Mazama Glacier we started up at about 5:00 am. We made good time on the lower and upper sections navigating around crevasses as necessary (mainly on the lower section). While taking a break we scoped out the headwall and decided "it needs to be done"!

Martin led out and we traversed over to the top of the South Klickitat Glacier and then headed straight up the slope. It was around 40 degrees at first and quickly increased to around 65-70. When we reached what we thought was the top we were a little suprised to see it was really the front edge of a huge crevasse. This forced us to traverse north about 30-50 yards (just a little nerve racking on a slope of 50+ and softening snow). This led to a narrow chute that ended in a second, even bigger, crevasse. However, I spotted a vertical section (everything else was overhung) on the other side and we crossed a snow bridge and worked our way to it. It looked like about 6 foot but when we got to it, it was probably closer to 12-15 foot. Everything was solid in this area, the crevasse was about 20-25 foot wide and the bottom was solid. Everything looking safe I headed up. I quickly discovered there was a small overhang that made this section a little trickier than I thought and as I got my chest to the top and attempted to swing one of my ice axes over the top so I could pull myself over, my other ice tool popped out and I was free falling backwards. I landed and rocketed to the other side and came to a stop. I quickly took a "mental" inventory and didn't feel anything severe, so I stood up and looked up at Martin who looked like he was trying to figure out what the Hell had just happened. I was ok but a little shook up, Martin then said lets do this without packs. We dropped our packs and he made VERY SHORT work of this section (his greater experience on vertical ice really showed) I tied on the packs and he pulled them up. Then he gave me a boot belay and we were done. Nothing left except the slog to the summit.

All in all this was one of the funnest climbs I've done, although I could have done without the fall. I ended up with a small bruise on my right knee and a small bruise on my right side (I think my pack actually absorded most of the impact). The Mazama Glacier is a beautiful route and the views are stunning. If you haven't done it you should put it on your agenda! The headwall makes for a great finishing variation, but the route is worth it even with the standard finish.

What can I say that my climbing partner hasn't already? See Cornvallis entry below. If there is any one way to make a physically fit person feel out of shape its to climb a mountain. Slow, but persistant, progress was made for the 50 climbers ahead and behind me. The views of sunset and sunrise were fantastic from Lunch Counter. Friendly campers. We felt our gear was safe to keep at camp while we summitted. Views from the top were gorgeous, of course. Weather was perfect. Glissade chutes were a blast!

Not too busy for labor day weekend. Hordes of people coming off the mountain as we hiked in Sun night with dogs in tow. Camped at Lunch Counter, only about 5 other tents there with us. Next morning, we tried to stick to snow for the sake of avoiding scree and tearing up the dogs feet. Stashed our packs at false summit and hit the true summit at noon. Amazing views all the way to Baker! Despite being end of August we still got some very fun glissading in on the way down!

Left Cold Springs at 4:15 PM with a huge pack (annaleiserabinek hope you get an overnight pack soon) and plans to spend the night at the Lunch Counter. Arrived at the Lunch Counter with just enough day left to set up our tent, filter some water, and enjoy an incredible sunset. The cold wind hammered our tent all night so I slept little, but stayed toasty warm thanks to a Nalgene bottle filled with boiling water at the foot of my bag. Climbed out of the tent early to watch the sunrise and was not disappointed. Left camp at around 7 AM with a cold brisk wind that would stay with us to the summit. Once again didn't really need crampons, but would have been nice. The view to the true summit from Pikers Peak was a little disheartening, but only helped spur me on. Took some photos of the shack and surrounding views then walked over to the highest spot on the summit plateau and enjoyed some lunch with brownies for desert. The legendary glissade chutes, while shorter than early in the season, did not disappoint. The chutes looked like bobsled runs, good times! Got back to the Lunch Counter with smiles on our faces, broke camp, hurried down the mountain, and we were off to pick up passes from Jack's to climb Mt. St. Helens the next day. Great couple of days on the mountain! I'm glad we broke it up into 2 days so we had more time to enjoy it. Adams is huge!!